Written by: Andrea Carneiro • February 7, 2019• Coral Gables

Building Relationships

In the world of Miguel Salvat, agent and principal of YES Real Estate Services, family business takes on many meanings.

Raised in a family business of his own (his father owned a bookstore and publishing house famed for its association with Cuban exile writers and academics), Salvat channeled that entrepreneurial spirit into his own business, building YES to 47 agents. But after getting married to wife Maritza and having a daughter, Olivia, Salvat realized that balancing business and family would have to become the new priority. “Last year she turned four, and they make a huge change at that age; they become little people,” he says. “I missed spending time with my daughter.”

Time is part of the reason that Salvat has been keen to grow his team, noting that though his job is 24/7, he can now rely on others to give him somewhat of a rest and allow him to even spend weekends with his daughter at Ocean Reef (phone nearby, of course.) “At the end of the day I do it all for my wife and daughter,” he says. “All the hard work is for them to have the best of everything. That was my Dad’s mentality and I have taken that into my personal life. It fuels my fire.” It’s also allowed him to share his knowledge with a new group of agents, a mentor role he does not take lightly. “Everything I have done has happened organically,” he says. “And now I can use my passion to help other realtors grow their business.”

Hard work is nothing new to Salvat, who grew up working for his father, taking on tasks as diverse as meeting with vendors and sweeping the warehouse. In fact, Salvat credits his Dad with teaching him the secrets of success (“He’s like Mr. Miyagi,” he says) and eventually encouraging him to let go of plans to take over the family publishing business and find his own place in real estate.

But it was not always smooth sailing. After friends encouraged the then-nightlife promoter to take a chance on the business, Salvat found himself in a precarious situation. “I met some real estate agents who encouraged me to become a realtor,” says Salvat, who is now a member of the Master Brokers Forum and a governor on the Miami Association of Realtors Board. “Then, the minute I got my license the market crashed. But I told myself I had to make it. The first year I was Rookie of the Year in the region for my company and it took off from there.” Eventually, as the market grew, he could use real estate recruiting ads to recruit new staff members and help his business flourish. Starting in the Gables, where Salvat grew up, the realtor eventually grew both his business and geographical area, working with buyers and sellers across South Florida and finally opening YES in November 2015. “I started in the Gables and I did a good deal there, but the days of the niche realtor has changed,” he says. “The internet gives us so much information. I can sell a property anywhere. Instead of farming territories, I concentrate on building relationships.”

In addition to a passion for real estate, Salvat credits his people skills (honed during his event promotion days) and business experience with his success. “Social media was already around when I was in college, so I was already using those tools in my father’s business to market books,” says Salvat. “I started with email blasts and carried that over into the nightlife business. The marketing concepts are really the same. I do all my own social media, it comes very easy to me. There are many applications that you can leverage to market properties.”

As far as the current market, Salvat is quick to defend his hometown, citing still-historically-low interest rates and the city’s own youth as positives. “We live in such an amazing city, and we’re such a young city in relation to New York or Boston or Chicago. Miami is still taking off. The city is in pure growth mode and it’s long-term.”

You can call Miguel Salvat at 305-975-1492, you can also visit miguelsalvat.com for the latest listings.

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